Trying to drum up some buzz for their Time Machine tour, Rush has released a pair of tracks from their upcoming album Clockwork Angels:Caravan and BU2B.
I'll start with Caravan. First of all, my expectations for these songs were not sky-high; I'm not looking for the second coming of 2112 or anything. If it could match the quality of most of the stuff on Vapor Trails; I'd be a happy camper. That's not what happened here; this reminded me of the crap that comprised the middle part of Snakes and Arrows. We're talking Bravest Face here. Nice intro, the Eastern touches were interesting, and that's about all the good that could be said. The rest was just a ridiculously overprocessed Geddy Lee moaning something about a "caravan" traveling onward while Peart slammed away in the background, and with a mediocre guitar solo in the middle. It looks like that, after over 35 years, Rush may be done for.
And then there's BU2B, or "Brought Up To Believe". Got three words: Worst. Title. Ever. With a title like that, anything over Disney-pop caliber will be a success. The horribly-named song, however, is that and a lot more. The intro and main riff is just nuts; I've got it stuck in my head for three days now. And to boot, Geddy's singing is actually passable for the whole time. The lyrics are, as usual, pretty deep stuff, concerning how we are "brought up to believe" in the theory of evolution. Considering that all three of the band members would qualify for Social Security benefits were they American citizens, this is about the best we can ask for. My only complaint is that the lyrics repeatedly reference a "Watchmaker that loves us all..."'; I thought Peart was an atheist. What the hell is up with that?
So what do you think about these two new songs?
